Ice Cream
One of the most well-known poems of Wallace Stevens is “The Emperor of Ice-Cream.” Perhaps this familiarity is due to the accessibility of its central symbol: ice cream. The utter pleasure of consuming this treat that is destined to melt away even our attention is engaged elsewhere is a perfect symbolic representation of life with the always-present knowledge of death that we nevertheless successfully manage to distract ourselves from when enjoying life.
Key West
The symbolic meaning of Key West is pretty much supplied by the irony of the title “The Idea of Order at Key West.” Good thing, too, since aside from the title the location of the poem is never mentioned by name and, unlike the above examples, where is where we start entering that verse of Stevens which is notoriously allusive and “difficult.” A little background helps: the poem was written as the result of a visit by the poet to the island in 1934 during a period of great social and historical turbulence. That turbulence is transferred into imagery of the sea in the actual verse and that imagery works to situate Key West as a symbol of disorder, especially in juxtaposition to the mannered order that was the norm back home in New England.
The Jar
Another famous poem is equally accessible as symbolism. “Anecdote of the Jar” is really a panoply of individual signs that all work together to fairly concretely define the jar as a symbol of the power of the imagination.
The Sun
The symbolic meaning of the sun in “Sunday Morning” follow a trajectory like that of the star itself as its rises and sets over the course of a day. The symbolism is plain and simple as the poem begins: a comforting bringer of warmth. As the poem draws to a close, the symbolism has become more abstract: the sun as agent of chaos over our lives.
The Theater
“Of Modern Poetry” is short work of verse in which Stevens engages the changing modes of acting in theatrical history as a symbol for the changing mode of poetry. Poetry becomes a type of performance and the evolution of modern poetry has made the mechanics of the past as archaic and outdated as the performance of ancient Greek theater would be to modern theater.
